Views from Maryland...Home for now, but sometimes out and about, trying to see more of the world whenever possible. The world is my home. And family and friends my world.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Whirlwind of Panamanian Duties

So we arrived in Panama, excited to see the finished product, the condo that we purchased in Pacific Sky, that was under construction the year earlier. We were not disappointed. In addition, Paul's and my suitcases finally came from Dulles and arrived from the airport the next day, we showered and were rested, and had enjoyed the previous evening discovering the local Punta Paitilla neighborhood and celebrating Mara's 23rd birthday, which was shared with a Panamanian friend of hers (from SAS) who joined us at an outdoor patio table restaurant. The weather was warm and beautiful, and we enjoyed the change from freezing cold winter to 95 degree days of sunshine. The condo we rented for a week from HomeAway.com had a great pool with lovely views of the city, and was only a 5 minute walk away from our new condo.

The next days were busy with meeting with our local lawyer, signing papers, arranging for a local bank account, and meeting local realtors to pursue a course of property management with them, as well as determining our best course for managing our condo investment.

In all these encounters, the people that we met were so nice and helpful, and genuinely friendly and kind.

We also had to immediately shop for lighting packages for the condo, as they are not typically installed with any buildings..that is all personally chosen, so that was also one of our first orders of business. We went to a lighting store, picked out lights, ceiling fans and made a list, and the property managers we chose picked them up and had them installed for us with their "people." They did a great job.

Here our our first pics of the condo. They look out over the Pacific Ocean, and overlook a low rise residential area, a park and the city country club of sorts- the Union Club. It is a great view, in that many of the ships that are waiting to enter and go through the Panama Canal line up there, so you can often see an assortment of ships in the ocean distance, and at night, their twinkling lights.

We decided to rent it out furnished, so Mara and I will return weeks later to accomplish that task. Paul is only staying on for a few days..getting back to work in Maryland.